Issue 5: 10 December 2021

DEVELOPMENTS ON REFEREE PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT
AND DELIVERY

The implementation of the BBNZ Strengthen and Adapt Plan has resulted in some changes in the way referee programmes are developed and delivered.

A new position of People Development Lead has been created in the BBNZ national office team, and Amy McClintock has recently been appointed to this role. The main purpose of this new role is to develop and implement a people development strategy including the development of coach and referee pathways and programmes.

Amy’s previous role was the Community Sports Lead at the Selwyn Sports Trust. She has previously worked as Coach and Officials Development Manager at Athletics New Zealand and Community Netball and High Performance Manager at Canterbury Netball. Amy is a qualified Sport NZ Coach Developer and Coach Mentor. Amy has participated at various levels in a range of sports including athletics, netball, touch, rugby, basketball, mountain biking and water-skiing. She dedicates much of her spare time coaching and supporting her two children. She is based at the new BBNZ regional hub at Sport Canterbury.

Melony O’Connor has moved to the BBNZ Events Team in a new position called Events Officials Lead. The focus of this new role is managing the provision of officials at our various events. It also includes continuing to manage the delivery of referee training at events such as the national championship tournaments.

Peter Rodgers has been appointed for another two-year term as the National Referee Instructor, which is a FIBA position that each national federation is required to have. The role is to be FIBA’s contact for officiating and oversee the training of referees.

For the last two years, Peter has been the chair of the National Referee Appointments and Development Committee. As part of changes arising from the Strengthen and Adapt Plan, this committee is being slightly restructured as a Referee Leadership Group (and a new Coach Leadership Group is also being formed). The appointment of members for this for the next two-year term will be finalised shortly.

You can find more information about the Strengthen and Adapt Plan here.

Open angle is the Basketball New Zealand newsletter for referees and referee trainers. It is an occasional newsletter, published when we have information or news to share.

It is sent to anyone registered as a basketball official with Basketball New Zealand, or who has attended a recent tournament as an official, has enrolled in the BBNZ Level 1 referee course, or we otherwise have your e-mail address in relation to refereeing and we believe that you will be interested in this newsletter.

The name Open angle comes from the term used by FIBA to describe a referee’s “clear view of the action”, so we hope to use this newsletter as another way to give you a clear view of information you need to know.

SOME RESOURCES FOR SUMMER

Here are some resources you can use for some personal development over the summer to prepare yourself for next season.

The FIBA iRef Academy Library app
This app is now the main way that FIBA is distributing material on rules and refereeing techniques. It contains a wide variety of material on many topics. You can get the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Getting fit
The summer is your time to get fit for the 2022 season. If you’re looking for advice on a fitness programme suitable for referees, you’ll find a couple of documents published by FIBA useful: Physical training manual for basketball referees and Improve your … specific training. Both are available in the FIBA iRef Academy Library app (under the “FIBA Referees / Physical Training” menu).

The Accident Compensation Corporation has published some guidelines about the safe return to physical activity and getting yourself match-fit after the lockdowns. You can find more information here.

FIBA webinars
FIBA has been running a regular series of webinars for referees. They are on at 4:00pm European time, so not a great time for us but the good news is that recordings are available in the FIBA iRef Academy Library app. Information about registering for the webinars is also in the app, if you’re keen to join at the early hour.

Recent topics of the webinars have included: communication, fitness, scouting teams, life in the referee bubble at the Tokyo Olympics, and an inside look at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia (Ryan Jones features in this webinar).

Basketball Champions League “Tough calls” videos
The European Basketball Champions League (BCL) produces a weekly “Tough calls” video, which explain various scenarios in games and say whether the referees got it right or not. To watch these, go to the BCL news webpage and click on the “Tough Calls” tab.

REFEREE TECHNIQUE FOCUS:
Checking the clocks

Consider the situation where the shot clock has been incorrectly reset and you need to have it put back to what it should be. Rather than the referee going to the shot clock operator and asking what it should be on, our ideal situation is for you to be able to tell the shot clock operator what to put it back to. And the technique for being able to do that is to quickly check the game clock when a team establishes new team control (i.e. the start of a new shot-clock period). At the same time as you are checking that the shot clock has been correctly reset, note the last two digits of the game clock.

Then, when you need to correct the shot clock, you can use simple arithmetic to work out what it should be. For example, if the game clock is showing 6:26, pick up the 26. The, if the ball goes out of bounds at 6:10 and the shot clock is incorrectly reset, you know from 26 – 10 that 16 seconds have elapsed, and 24 – 16 = 8, so you can tell the shot clock operator to set it to 8.

This is an advanced technique and is only useful if the clock is in an easy position for you to quickly check, but it is a technique to develop to improve your refereeing.

RULES QUIZ

Test yourself with these rule questions.

During a throw-in, thrower-in A1 steps on the court before releasing the ball. Is this a violation?
After a successful basket by Team A, B1 grabs the ball and, before going out-of-bounds for the throw-in, makes an early throw-in pass to a team-mate. Is this a violation?
A1 is standing with both feet in the back court close to the centre line and bounce passes the ball to A2 who is also standing with both feet in the back court. During the pass, the ball touches the front court before A2 catches it. Is this a back court violation?
In question 3, does Team A now have 8 seconds to get the ball into the front court after A2 catches the bounce pass?
A1 has been in the restricted area for 2.5 seconds when he receives a pass. He then dribbles towards the basket then passes the ball to A2 after the count has reached 3 seconds. Is this a three-second violation?

Rules quiz answers

Yes. – Art 17.3.1; Int 12-25
No. The throw-in hasn’t happened yet (the player has not gone out-of-bounds). Call the player back and make the thrower-in do it correctly from behind the end line. – Art 17.1.1
No. The ball was not touched by a Team A player in the front court. – Int 30-9
Yes. When the ball touched the front court, that ended the eight-second count and a new count starts when A2 catches the ball. – Int 30-9
Yes. – Art 26

REGISTERED IN THE BBNZ DATABASE?

If you're active as a referee or a referee trainer, you should be registered in the BBNZ database. To complete a registration if you are not currently in the database, follow this link. You can check and update your details at any time later by going to members.nz.basketball and logging in with the same e-mail and password.

MORE INFO

nz.basketball/officials
BBNZ Referees Facebook page
FIBA iRef Pre-Game app - download from Apple or Google Play
FIBA iRef Academy Library app - download from Apple or Google Play

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